ANGELA WATSON

Angela Watson was born in 1966 in Warburton, a remote community in Western Australia As a young child, Angela and her family relocated to Pipalyatjara, where she continues to live today

Angela started her arts practice in the early 2000s, as the first Aboriginal art studios were being set up in the western region of the APY Lands Her artworks draw influence from ‘tjukurpa’ (traditional stories), particularly those of ‘Minyma Kutjara (Two Women Dreaming) This is an important story from her father’s country Irrunytju, which lies just over the border from Pipalyatjara in Western Australia

The Minyma Kutjara’ story tells of two women travelling alone who are looking for fresh ‘kapi’ (water) Along their travels they have to escape the advances of a ‘wati' (man) who stalks them Angela’s paintings frequently show the path and camps from their journey across the lands, as well as the night-time constellations of the Milky Way that lays above

She works with bold, graphic colour palettes and is notable in her use of both contemporary techniques and composition to tell the traditional story

Mamu is a rockhole site southwest of Pipalyatjara, about one hour Alkuwari was travelling with her jamu (grandson) and her grandfather (also called jamu). They made a camp with fire and big wiltja Alkuwari was worried that her grandson was going to harm her grandfather and she needed to go hunting So , she hid her grandfather on top of the wiltja and went

The boy put the waru (fire) inside the wiltja and burned the grandfather Alkuwari saw the smoke and she ran and ran to the wiltja but the grandfather had died. the jamu had run away so she went and got all her family to follow him , to kill him

They became the mamu and turned into the seven rockholes of Mamu